A FAILURE THAT IS ADDICTIVE
#141 A FAILURE THAT IS ADDICTIVE
Scripture Romans 10:1-21 NIV Orig. 9/23/62
Rewr. 7/25/85
Passage: Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5 Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.”[a] 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’”[b] (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’”[c] (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”[d] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”[e] 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[f]
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[g]
16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”[h] 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. 18 But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”[i]
19 Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,
“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”[j]
20 And Isaiah boldly says,
“I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”[k]
21 But concerning Israel he says,
“All day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.”[l]
Purpose: Continuing a series from Romans, showing Israel’s failure to understand their relationship to God and faith.
Keywords: Bible Study Law
Series, Romans
Introduction
Quest is a major factor in one’s concept of dedication. Do we envision a great task entrusted to us? Do we apply ourselves to its success?
It is said that the ship’s log used by Christopher Columbus on his first crossing of the Atlantic repeats, “This day we sailed westward!” day after day. When Cyrus Field was preparing to put in place the very first Atlantic cable, he first made fifty trips across that great ocean to prepare for it. Gibbon, the historian, wrote his autobiography nine times before he was satisfied with it, and spent twenty years on his greatest work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
More recently, this week’s news tells of treasure hunter Mel Fisher. For sixteen years he has searched the waters off of Key West, Florida, for a sunken Spanish galleon, Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank in a hurricane in 1622 with millions in silver and gold. The search cost Mr. Fisher the lives of a son, daughter-in-law, and another diver. He is said to have greeted his divers every day for years with the statement, “Today’s the day!” Last Saturday morning was the day.
But the Jews, instead of seeing their relationship with God as a quest of faith, saw it as an endowment of merit. As long as they were the guardians of the law, they were special. Paul shows them that this is not so. Faith must be the target of Jew and Gentile.
I. The First Consideration Is Their Judicial Failure. V4 “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
We need a right picture about failure. It was not a failure of the law. Romans 4:4f “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes . . ., his faith is accounted for righteousness.” Psalm 32:1 “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
It was certainly not God’s failure. Isaiah 1:9 “Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a . . . remnant, we would have become like Sodom.” Clearly, it was their failure. Three times (Luke 12:56, 19:44, 21:24): “How is it you do not discern this present time?”
They were not without urgency. There was will, determination, even excitement, but all in error. Paul prays for their salvation. He tells us that they are not. He tells us that they can be: II Corinthians 3:16 “When one turns to the Lord the veil is taken away.” He tells us that they will be: Romans 11:26 ”All Israel will be saved.”
Their failure is that they are looking to their Jewishness, not grace, to save. We are not saved by our Baptistness. Others are not saved by their Methodistness, etc. We are not saved by our churchiness.
II. Next, We Look at Their Spiritual Failure. V9 “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” It speaks of grace, of God doing what we cannot, of appropriating the sin-covering function of Jesus’ death for our sin. John 1:12 “As many as receive Him, to them God gives the power to become His children.”
Apart from Jesus we are cut off from God. So also were the Jews. It is a terrible risk to assume someone may have attained the spirit of obedience. It speaks too clearly of confession. It localizes that confession in Christ Jesus. It did the Jew no good to confess his Jewishness. It does no good to confess our churchiness. V10 “With the mouth confession is made.”
How long has it been since we talked to someone about Christ? Sunday School teachers need to talk to their pupils.
III. It Speaks of Their Social Failure. V14f “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?”
They chose what they could not save. When the law is not passing out punishment for wrong it is failing. One of our social concerns today is that the law is not always fair. We don’t need a law that lets people get by with more; we don’t need a law that, as someone said, “you can get out of if you have money.”
Mercy is a bestowal of grace. V4 “Christ is the end of the law,” the “termination,” the final reckoning. It will never go beyond this. It is God’s last word on the subject.
The Jew still has not learned that law and grace are antagonistic. Romans 4:4 “To him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.” Romans 11:6, “If by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise, grace is no longer grace.”
IV. Paul Adds a Concluding Note of Proof of Their Failure. Deuteronomy 32:21, God said to Moses, “I will provoke them to jealousy.” Isaiah 65:1 “I was found by those who did not seek me.” Isaiah 65:2 “I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Conclusion
The last entry in the diary of David Livingstone was: “Jesus, my Saviour, my king, my God, I rededicate my all to thee to be and to do for thee the best that I can until the day is done.” There is GRACE. There is BELIEF. There is CONFESSION.